London, Nov 14 (AFP) Rafael Nadal pulled out of the ATPFinals, admitting he had lost his fitness battle aftercrashing to defeat in three sets to David Goffin in athrilling encounter.
The world number one dug deep but was stunned 7-6 (7/5),6-7 (4/7), 6-4 by Goffin in his opening match of the end-of-season finale, which he has never won in his illustriouscareer.
The Spaniard came into the tournament with doubtsswirling over his fitness after pulling out of the ParisMasters with a knee injury.
Initially he showed no obvious ill-effects during arollercoaster round-robin encounter in front of a supportivecrowd but eventually his injury caught up with him and forcedhim to admit his season is over.
"No, I am off," said Nadal. "My season is finished. Yeah,I had the commitment with the event, with the city, withmyself. I tried hard. I did the thing that I had to do to tryto be ready to play. But I am really not ready to play.""Is about the pain," he added. "I cannot hold with enoughpower to keep playing. I tried, but seriously it was a miracleto be very close in the score during the match. It reallydoesn't make sense."Nadal said he would work hard to be ready for the startof the next season.
"I know what I have to do," he said. "I know all thethings that happened in the past when I had these things, andI know the treatment that I had to do. I know the periods oftime that I need to work. Then if the treatment works or not,we will see."Nadal, 31, struggled to find his range early in front ofa raucous crowd rooting for him and was broken twice in thefirst set by the Belgian seventh seed, who had lost theirprevious two encounters.
The Spaniard appeared to have earned a psychological edgewhen Goffin double-faulted while serving for the set and thematch went into a tie-break but the Belgian re-found his focusto come out on top.
The second set went with serve until the eighth game,when Goffin broke to earn a chance to serve for the match,only for Nadal to break back.
Goffin had a golden chance to seal the match in Nadal'snext service game but failed to put away a mid-court forehandon match point and the left-hander levelled at 5-5.
The Belgian composed himself to hold and then earnedthree more match points but Nadal, showing incredible grit andplaying right at the limit, saved all three to take it toanother tie-break, which he won.
In the decider, Nadal appeared to feel discomfort in hisright knee as he went two breaks down but still he refused toadmit defeat, recovering a break before eventually succumbing.
"It was a tough fight until the end," said a relievedGoffin.
"Rafa is one of the strongest players mentally on thetour. I am so happy to finally find the key to win this match.
It is so special to do it here."Nadal has won 75 singles titles in his illustriouscareer, including 16 Grand Slams and 30 Masters events but hehas yet to triumph at the ATP Finals, played on quick indoorcourts rather than his favoured clay.
Earlier, also in the Pete Sampras group, Grigor Dimitrovheld his nerve to beat Dominic Thiem 6-3, 5-7, 7-5.
The elegant Bulgarian had the edge for most of anenthralling contest of one-handed backhands but admitted hefelt "pretty nervous" in his first appearance at the ATPFinals.
The sixth seed, who has enjoyed the best season of hiscareer, looked wobbly as he blew his chance to serve for thematch at 5-4 in the decider only to hit back immediately asThiem himself faltered and going on to seal victory on histhird match point.
The ATP Finals feature the top eight fit male singlesplayers and doubles teams that have accrued the most pointsthroughout the 2017 season. (AFP) CMCM.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.